Teachers, would you still recommend the profession?

[Anonymous]

I'll dissent--to a degree. I've been teaching high school for twenty years. Have taught in both public and private, currently in private. I love my work. Love the students (mostly), love teaching material I feel passionate about, love my colleagues and head. It is an enormous amount of work for not much money, but I recharge during the long vacations-essentially I work 60-70 hours a week during the school year but very little otherwise.

BUT my husband is the main earner so we can handle the low salary, and my school had a great administration that is very supportive of teachers. Have been in schools where that's not the case and it can be miserable. I also have more freedom in teaching methods and curriculum than public teachers do. So I would still recommend it, but only for private schools and only with a supportive head. I love my situation but it isn't easy to find. Not impossible, though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been thinking of going into the profession. The problem is I only have a bachelor's in a different field. So then what are 'my options? Is teach for America really that terrible? What other inexpensive training is out there for a mom with a couple of kids now to deal with?

No, teach at a DC charter. As long as you are a team player and do what they tell you to do, you're fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only if you are willing to work a lot outside of normal working hours. I work about 4 hours a night on average - from 8pm to midnight. And I get to school about 30 minutes before I have to and stay about 90 minutes after dismissal most days. I also work most Sundays for most of the day. I teach kindergarten and I have taught for several years.

Good grief...what are you doing? And do you have a family?

Yes, I have a family. That is why I don't work from 5-8, as I spend that time with my children.

The work entails: writing curriculum for all subject areas, responding to emails from colleagues and families, writing weekly newsletters, sending home weekly progress updates, updating our class blog, researching books and reserving them at the library, creating various materials for students to use, analyzing assessments to inform my instruction, creating individualized materials for students in order to differentiate, planning guiding reading groups and math small groups - six groups for each subject area, creating new components of dramatic play, reading various texts and publications from the education world to inform my practice...I could go on, but hopefully this begins to give you an idea.

No one past their 3rd year of teaching should be working that much. Either you are a martyr or bad at teaching. I have been teaching for 17 years and I love it. Are there times I have to work longer hours? Of course! Report card time, science fair, etc. I do take time to revise lesson plans, I am good at what I do, and work to differentiate my plans. But 4 hours a night and Sundays? You lunchin for real.

[Anonymous]

Do NOT teach elementary. The amount of work is soul crushing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if its just a DC area thing. My teacher friends back home in small town VA seem to have a much lighter workload although the pay still sucks.

Virginia is not a common core state, so there's that, and small town teaching has very different challenges than urban.

I teach in NOVA and am super busy, I don't think it has anything to do with common core, or being in a small town for that matter. I think it's just your friends. Not all teachers in the DC area work the crazy hours, people have posted. It just depends on if you can live with yourself for not doing the job "well".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular gen ed classroom heck no! Focus, reading specialist, staff development, speech, ot, esl media, p.e....maybe.

Agree, huge growth in esol and esol counseling. Is at specialty pay and low hours

What is esol counseling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how much is hearsay about work that teachers feed off of one another on. We've been in the public school system for about 8 years now in an affluent school, great schools 10 rating, and rarely get anything back graded from a teacher. We did private for 2 years and got back graded papers all the time. The private had textbooks and more supplies overall. Public doesn't but this seems to be because of the will of the teachers. When I ask them if they like the interactive notebooks and all the copying from multiple sources they say it's better, so what am I to do about this? The public actually has more resources to pull from.

I understand the difficulties in Title 1 schools, but here the same complaints at our affluent school too and wonder if they are justified. The public school teachers get paid at least twice what our private school teacher was paid. In addition, our schools have more specials and don't have religion, so the teachers are actually teaching less during the day than in private.

I wish public school teachers were more specific about what the issues were. Perhaps they would actually get fixed rather than what's happening how where rumors spread how horrible the school systems are which then promote right wing conservatives to cut off funding to public schools sending them in more of a downward spiral.

I don't understand the comparisons between the teachers at your public and private schools. The job of a private school teacher sucks too

[Anonymous]

It depends on what you're expecting and where you've been.

I lost my (corporate) job with the financial crisis in 2009. Decided I wanted to do something more rewarding and went back to school and became a teacher. Even on my worst day (problems with students, parents, progress reports, etc), I still get to leave work by 3:45 and I get Spring break soon Oh, and working with kids is indeed rewarding!

So my point is, if you have perspective (which I think I did) with which you can fairly evaluate teaching as a professional against other sorts of professions...that may help make you appreciate teaching more despite it's negatives. I know people who are career educators who have never done anything else and they are miserable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on what you're expecting and where you've been.

I lost my (corporate) job with the financial crisis in 2009. Decided I wanted to do something more rewarding and went back to school and became a teacher. Even on my worst day (problems with students, parents, progress reports, etc), I still get to leave work by 3:45 and I get Spring break soon Oh, and working with kids is indeed rewarding!

So my point is, if you have perspective (which I think I did) with which you can fairly evaluate teaching as a professional against other sorts of professions...that may help make you appreciate teaching more despite it's negatives. I know people who are career educators who have never done anything else and they are miserable

I think there is a lot of truth to this, and it applies to other professions too. Having private sector experience gave me a lot more perspective than my career civil servant colleagues who thought that the private sector was all unicorns and rainbows in terms of perks, while ignoring the other costs.

Some of the happiest teachers I know are career switchers. Also, given that it is a female-dominated profession, if women haven't worked in other sectors ever, and are often working for male principals (realize that happens less and less these days, but still not abnormal), there is tendency to take on a lot of the administrative b.s., and not speak truth to power or know what to let go and honestly just ignore. I also think women are more perfectionist than men, and it pervades the work ethic in teaching at times to a fault. Still, the lack of respect for the career is daunting, wrong and damaging to society. Teachers deserve better, no doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never recommend the teaching profession. I'm in my 18th year. I love my kids and I love my co-workers. But my husband is a teacher too and we can barely afford to live here and provide for our own children on our salaries. Two of my younger co-workers have been talking about having kids soon and have been peppering me with questions about daycare costs and other expenses and they are terrified at how much it's going to cost and have no idea how they're going to afford it.

sounds like from this thread teaching is only a field you go into if you either have family money or your spouse is a biglaw partner. the other pp was saying how she loved it but dh is the main breadwinner.

As a single male, without family money, interested in switching to teaching - sounds like it is not a good idea if I ever want to be married.

[Anonymous]

I work with ESL kids in public schools but I'm not a regular teacher with a traditional classroom. From what I see, I'd not recommend it to any in college. Parents fall into one of two groups: they are too involved or not at all involved. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground, and aside from their low pay, dealing with parents is most of the teacher's main complaint.

I was in a classroom recently where as soon as the school day ended, a mom waltzed in and demanded the teacher grade her son's test right then. She was very huffy and short with the teacher when the teacher explained that she had to do her after school duties first (getting kids on the bus, waiting with her group of kids in the pick up line, etc.). The mother then asked why I, her assistant, couldn't grade it. Why was I there anywayS?? (Yes, anyway with the S, gah). Couldn't I wait with the kids for their parents?? Can't 4th graders be trusted to wait alone! She needed his test graded ASAP because the night before he was at his dad's house and she was positive he had just allowed their son to play video games and not study, and she wanted a copy of the failed test for court purposes the next morning to prove he was a bad dad. I wanted to try to find a reason to linger so I could find out the outcome, but I did ask the teacher a few days later and the kid passed and the mom was PISSED. Who does that?!?

Why would anyone want to deal with that level of crazy for the low pay they get?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never recommend the teaching profession. I'm in my 18th year. I love my kids and I love my co-workers. But my husband is a teacher too and we can barely afford to live here and provide for our own children on our salaries. Two of my younger co-workers have been talking about having kids soon and have been peppering me with questions about daycare costs and other expenses and they are terrified at how much it's going to cost and have no idea how they're going to afford it.

sounds like from this thread teaching is only a field you go into if you either have family money or your spouse is a biglaw partner. the other pp was saying how she loved it but dh is the main breadwinner.

As a single male, without family money, interested in switching to teaching - sounds like it is not a good idea if I ever want to be married.

That's why so many men (and single women) teachers wind up administrators - the additional money. It's not always true (my DH will stay a teacher, but that's bc I am the breadwinner), but it's tough to support kids on a young teacher's salary. You make more decent money when you've been doing it for years, but by then it's too late to have kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never recommend the teaching profession. I'm in my 18th year. I love my kids and I love my co-workers. But my husband is a teacher too and we can barely afford to live here and provide for our own children on our salaries. Two of my younger co-workers have been talking about having kids soon and have been peppering me with questions about daycare costs and other expenses and they are terrified at how much it's going to cost and have no idea how they're going to afford it.

sounds like from this thread teaching is only a field you go into if you either have family money or your spouse is a biglaw partner. the other pp was saying how she loved it but dh is the main breadwinner.

As a single male, without family money, interested in switching to teaching - sounds like it is not a good idea if I ever want to be married.

I mean...

Yes, if you want some swanky lifestyle, you're not going to have it on a teacher's salary. My husband works for a nonprofit. He makes about the same amount of money as me and we do just fine. No, you don't need a spouse who is a biglaw partner, FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never recommend the teaching profession. I'm in my 18th year. I love my kids and I love my co-workers. But my husband is a teacher too and we can barely afford to live here and provide for our own children on our salaries. Two of my younger co-workers have been talking about having kids soon and have been peppering me with questions about daycare costs and other expenses and they are terrified at how much it's going to cost and have no idea how they're going to afford it.

sounds like from this thread teaching is only a field you go into if you either have family money or your spouse is a biglaw partner. the other pp was saying how she loved it but dh is the main breadwinner.

As a single male, without family money, interested in switching to teaching - sounds like it is not a good idea if I ever want to be married.

I mean...

Yes, if you want some swanky lifestyle, you're not going to have it on a teacher's salary. My husband works for a nonprofit. He makes about the same amount of money as me and we do just fine. No, you don't need a spouse who is a biglaw partner, FFS.

i think most on this thread aren't worried about a swanky lifestyle at the end of the day in this area - but cost of housing without a crushing commute and in good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never recommend the teaching profession. I'm in my 18th year. I love my kids and I love my co-workers. But my husband is a teacher too and we can barely afford to live here and provide for our own children on our salaries. Two of my younger co-workers have been talking about having kids soon and have been peppering me with questions about daycare costs and other expenses and they are terrified at how much it's going to cost and have no idea how they're going to afford it.

sounds like from this thread teaching is only a field you go into if you either have family money or your spouse is a biglaw partner. the other pp was saying how she loved it but dh is the main breadwinner.

As a single male, without family money, interested in switching to teaching - sounds like it is not a good idea if I ever want to be married.

I mean...

Yes, if you want some swanky lifestyle, you're not going to have it on a teacher's salary. My husband works for a nonprofit. He makes about the same amount of money as me and we do just fine. No, you don't need a spouse who is a biglaw partner, FFS.

i think most on this thread aren't worried about a swanky lifestyle at the end of the day in this area - but cost of housing without a crushing commute and in good schools.

This is only available to BigLaw partners?